|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MOUNTAIN WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 6, 2018Amanda LevensTerae BriggsT MoeLas Vegas, Nevada Nevada - 77, UNLV - 73, 2OT AMANDA LEVENS: Obviously just congratulations to UNLV on winning our conference. That's quite a feat, to be that consistent over the conference season. We knew it would be a quick turnaround. Beating them at their place, we knew they'd come out and play better than they did up there. They did. They held the lead the entire regulation until we got to overtime. I'm just so proud of our team for finding a way to get stops when we needed stops, get key baskets when we needed baskets, playing behind the whole game, finding a way to get a chance to win in overtime. Just so proud of them. THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes. Q. Can you talk about toughness, how that advanced the game. Every time it seemed if you seized momentum from UNLV, at a certain point Brooke sort of did what you did yesterday, took over briefly, but you found a way to respond. In terms of the mental game, keeping yourselves focused, once you tied it and forced the overtime, was there a sense of confidence that no matter what they did at any given moment, that you could stay in this? T MOE: I think once we pushed it to overtime, we knew it was going to be our game. Q. Talk about toughness and how that advanced the game. T MOE: I think together as a team, that's what it basically came down to, was toughness. I keep saying we have gut checks, that's exactly what it is. It comes down to what we're going to do, how we're going to respond to things. We came together, we got stops when we needed them. We played together. TERAE BRIGGS: Amanda honestly said to us, Power of team. That was really big. It made us, like, we're more better as a team than individuals, so it was good. With the toughness, we just kind of thought about over, like, the summer, pre-season and stuff, we ran sixers, all this stuff. Like pretty much we knew we had more in us, that we could win. Q. Yesterday you talked about a gut check. What was the speech like in the locker room at halftime? What was that talk like? T MOE: Big Dog basically said if we're going to come out and play the first half like we did, we didn't come here to win. For us, that's motivation because that's not who we are as a team, who we want to be. Basically her telling us that that wasn't us out there, we just needed to turn it around, and it was all on us. Q. With this win, beating UNLV on their court, how does that set the tone for the rest of the tournament? T MOE: I think these overtime wins are making it even more fun for us. It's giving us more motivation because it's more fun to play. We know that we have that fight in us. We can push any game and take it when we need to. Q. Does the fact that the success of the men's team, does that drive you as well? TERAE BRIGGS: Well, at the beginning of the year, our goal was to win a championship. So, like, we didn't really think about the men's team, honestly. But, like, we seen that they won the conference, you know, so we're, like, well, what is this, the tournament, this tournament is where it counts. That was the thing, the goal. THE MODERATOR: We'll dismiss the student-athletes at this time and take questions for coach. Q. Touch on the resiliency, what impresses you most about this squad, what makes it so special. AMANDA LEVENS: I think we just continue to get better. Obviously coming in as a new staff, you have different standards and expectations in every area. I was a head coach once before, and coaching as an assistant. I think sometimes it takes a year and a half for your players to understand the 10,000-hour rule kind of thing. For our team, I have been so pleased with how we continue to get better. Obviously you want to be playing your best basketball at the end of February and March. I think for our team, late February stuff really started to click, especially on the defensive end. As coaches we're, like, beating our heads against the wall midway through the season, Why can't we do this? We're doing in it practice. To see it transfer in games has been amazing. We have great kids that Jane brought in. We're very fortunate to inherit the talent and the character of the people that we have in our program. We have four seniors that provide a great deal of leadership, a great amount of toughness. You look at T Moe, she started the game slow. I know her knees were hurting. She played a lot of minutes last night. She just didn't want to lose. She refused to let that happen to our team. She stepped up, made big shots, led the team in the huddle. Without a player like that, you don't win tonight. It's all about their leadership, their refusal not to be done with our season. Q. When you look at the stat sheet, you have some of the small things that a lot of players overlook, offensive rebounds, free throws. How big was that tonight? AMANDA LEVENS: Huge. I mean, we shot 91% from the line. They were 52%. I think that's the difference in a four-point game, if we don't make our free throws, timely free throws, by Terae and T Moe, we don't win. They were able come to come down and get baskets when they needed them. UNLV is the best rebounding team in our conference. We knew we had to be right there with them or be better to have a chance in this game. We out-rebounded them tonight. I think that's a huge statistic. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. AMANDA LEVENS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|